Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

Silicon Valley business and health care leaders have launched a "grass-roots effort" to build a children's hospital in San Jose in two years, the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal reports. The Silicon Valley Children's Hospital Foundation, which includes 21 members, plans to offer services for children in one location to allow the facility to develop an expertise in pediatric care. Today, a number of facilities "dispersed" throughout the area provide pediatric services. Under the foundation's plan, an independent agency would manage a new children's hospital built within a larger facility, leasing space and services from the "host" hospital. The new children's facility would have 40 pediatric beds and 10 intensive care beds. The Journal reports that the foundation based the plan on the Phoenix Children's Hospital, which began as a "hospital in a hospital" in 1983 but has grown enough to purchase a free-standing facility. In addition to choosing the host hospital, the foundation must select a "partner children's hospital" to manage and negotiate managed care contracts. The plan will cost about $20 million. Mike O'Farrell, a member of the foundation's advisory committee, said, "There is a need for a children's hospital in South Bay, but as the area grows there will be more of a need in the future." However, some health care providers have questioned whether a children's hospital in San Jose "is the best way to enhance pediatric services" in the area. In 1995, a group of local physicians proposed a plan to build a $60 million free-standing children's hospital, but the proposal failed (May, Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal, 9/21).

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